The superhydrophobicity is defined as a surface with both a water contact angle (CA) exceed 150° and a water sliding angle (SA) less than 10.0 , this strategy is clearly exhibited by the lotus leaf whose surface is structured on two length scales by micron and nano sized wax protrusions. Copper and its alloys have been one of the important materials in industry owing to its high electrical and thermal conductivities, mechanical workability and its relatively noble properties. It is widely used in many applications in electronic industries and communications as a conductor in electrical power lines, pipelines for domestic and industrial water utilities including seawater, heat conductors and heat exchangers. One of the major problems which face Cu is the corrosion, which leads resulting in lower device performance and failure.
In this work, stable superhydrophobic surfaces have been successfully fabricated on the copper substrates by electrodeposition process in an electrolytic solution containing myristic acid (MYA), different metal chloride salts, and ethanol without any post processing procedures. Two unique phenomena were achieved; the first phenomenon was a concurrent electrodeposition of the superhydrophobic coatings on both cathodic and anodic copper alloy surfaces. The second phenomenon was the development of an excellent adhesion of the superhydrophobic coatings. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer, Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and contact angle measurements have been performed to characterize the surface morphology, chemical composition and the superhydrophobic property. In the presence of copper chloride, micro/nano scales flower-like structures were composed with maximum (CA<155°) and (SA>4°). The corrosion resistance of the prepared superhydrophobic coatings was measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and Tafel polarization measurements. The developed metal myristate superhydrophobic surface has excellent corrosion resistance with significant decrease in corrosion currents densities (icorr), corrosion rates and double layer capacitance (Cdl), with simultaneous increase in polarization resistance (Rct) values in 3.5 wt. % NaCl solutions. Furthermore, this method is rapid, cost effective and it will have great prospects for industrial applications